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I wasn't raised a McIntosh lad. My dad used Fisher, Bogen, Leak, and Ampex tubed electronics&mdash;and, at one time, even home-built speakers&mdash;to keep the house filled with a steady, enriching flow of Mozart. He never owned a Mac component, and, when going upmarket, reached for B&O, alas. So while I knew that many audiophiles hold tubed McIntosh gear&mdash;especially the early designs&mdash;in very high regard, I was somehow never bitten or smitten. But let's face it&mdash;for lo these many years, McIntosh has been for many <I>the</I> name in quality American audio. Take my friend Dan, to whom I've referred several times in the pages of <I>Stereophile</I>. He runs a tubed Conrad-Johnson 9 preamplifier, but wouldn't <I>dream</I> of giving up his 270Wpc solid-state McIntosh MC7270. He's goldurn proud of it!

This question is an attempt to quickly take the pulse of audiophile music tastes this month: What music have you just bought?

The legal molasses in which <A HREF="http://www.mp3.com/">MP3.com</A&gt; is mired got thicker and deeper in mid-March, when MPL Communications launched a lawsuit against the Internet music company. MPL, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney's publishing house, joined the attack begun months ago by the <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com/">Recording Industries Association of America</A>. McCartney's firm filed suit in a New York US District Court against the San Diego&ndash;based startup over copyrights on intellectual properties owned by MPL, whose catalog includes McCartney's solo work, as well as the works of Buddy Holly, Hoagy Carmichael, Sammy Cahn, and other songwriters and performers. MPL was joined in the suit by Peer International, which owns the work of the late Latina star Selena.

For <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//finetunes/212/">"Fine Tunes" #16</A>, Jonathan Scull offers sage advice on handling the often ephemeral problem of microphonics in audio systems. "So here I am expounding on the tendency of audio components&mdash;especially tubes, capacitors, and resistors&mdash;to become microphonic, and you're wondering how you can find out if there's any of that shakin' goin' on in your system. And <I>you</I> want to do it easily and for next to nothing," he sez. The solutions await.

When <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/showvote.cgi?135">polled</A&gt; earlier this month, <I>Stereophile</I>'s online readers were split on the topic of DVD-Audio's surround capabilities: 30% expressed interest, but an equal number were not so thrilled with the idea. While the release of the official high-resolution DVD-A format is still several months away, some record labels have been quick to capitalize on the ability of current DVD players to play compressed AC3- and DTS-encoded audio DVDs, in the hopes of developing a market for a lower-fidelity surround-sound format.

The computer continues to insert itself into every aspect of daily life. Now it is a source for music from one's hometown&mdash;whether that town is across the state or across the ocean.

Time magazine has chosen Albert Einstein as the Person of the Century. As the great man said, everything's relative, so in this installment of "Fine Tunes" I'll cover a few relatively inexpensive tips for homeowners, or those building their own audiophile domiciles.